Former Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic has cleared the air on his exit from the Libyan national team, stating that he was not sacked as it is widely reported.

The 55-year-old Serbian mentor was appointed in October 2023, taking over from Salim Al-Jalali who had been in charge of Libya’s national team on an interim basis – a coup that promised to change the nation’s fortunes considering the experience of Sredojevic. 

The Mediterranean Knights had just won eight matches in four years before the ex-Bucs tactician was roped in. Micho enjoyed an unbeaten run in the early stages of his Libya tenure, winning six of the first eight matches in charge. However, Libya had a disappointing start to the 2025 Africa Cup Of Nations qualifiers following a 1-1 draw against Rwanda before succumbing to a 2-1 defeat against Gernot Rohr’s Benin, which left them bottom-placed in Group D after two matches. 

Now, ahead of Libya’s doubleheader against the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Sredojevic has revealed the reasons behind his exit from the team, dismissing the reports claiming that he was relieved of his duties as the head coach. “First of all, I need to tell you that last year in October I signed a one-year contract, and it was to take charge of the national team that played 32 matches and won only eight,” he said, as per a Nigerian outlet owngoalnigeria.com. 

“In rebuilding the team, in one year of my stay in Libya, we played 16 matches, winning nine. So, in one year I won more matches than Libya did in four years, I only lost two matches.” 

Micho further explained that with the Libyan Premier League scheduled to commence on 2 October, later than expected with crunch clashes against Nigeria on the horizon, he was forced to walk away from his post, citing player readiness as his main concern. 

“We are the only team in Africa that has gone in preparations in the matches for the qualifiers without being fit and ready,” said the Serbian coach. “Even all our clubs have gone out of the African club tournament [CAF competitions]. 

“So, after playing the first two matches with an unprepared team, the league was supposed to start and because my contract is expiring, I was refusing to extend the contract because the league is not starting and I cannot face Nigeria unprepared.” 

Libya will take on group D table-toppers Nigeria in Uyo on Friday, 11 October, before the return leg in Benghazi with former assistant coach Nasser Al-Hadiri appointed to take over the hot seat of the national team.